"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now."
My Boog Pages
Wednesday, February 6
Finito
Just finished up the second draft of my short story "Tail Job" last night. One more pass later this week and it's in the mail. I have a good feeling about this one; I'm really developing confidence in my writing.
Since I can recall the exact moment this story was born, I thought I'd share it with you.
Sometime last summer I'd checked out the short promotional films at BMW Films, all starring Clive Owen as The Driver. In particular a film called The Follow struck me as being really pretty good. Forest Whitaker, an agent for rich, abusive husband Mickey Rourke, hires The Driver to find out what Rourke's wife is up to. After he figures it out, The Driver decides he doesn't want the job after all. A sort-of private eye flick, and the best in the series.
I was driving to my twice-monthly writer's group and thinking about the story, and I must have been behind a big loser, because suddenly the opening line of the story popped into my head: "It's tough to follow someone who doesn't know where he's going." I spent that night's meeting woolgathering and trying to develop a plot. Who is the guy being followed? Where is he going? Why?
A friend of mine used to work for a Realtor, and he and his buddies used to get the keys to vacant houses and party down. Once I hit on this idea, the rest of the plot fell together pretty quickly. Hmmm, I thought. Not bad.
I'd promised the group that I would bring something to critique to the next meeting, but I put it off, and finally ended up writing the entire 4,000 word story in one 5-hour session right before the meeting. It was sloppy and needed a lot of revision, but I was pleased with how it turned out. This is really going well, I thought.
I finished the revisions last night, except for a stray word here or there. When I was done, I thought to myself, I'd like to thank Mr. Randisi and all the members of the Private Eye Writers of America for this award... Okay, I'm dreaming, but remember: you heard it here first.
Next up I'm revising an old story for an anthology called Fedora II, edited by Michael Bracken. After that, it's The Baseball Story, hopefully destined for the Spring issue of The Thrilling Detective. After that, "Blackbirds", a story I have high hopes for. We'll see how it goes.
